She's up

KeeKee's up and almost back to normal, still doesn't put weight on her right fore leg, but she's moving around her pen and eating, ready to get out, she will be in there quite awhile, until she get stronger. She couldn't take another butting. With the weather report saying it will be back in the 70's, we will start shearing again today. I love this time change in the morning, as it seems like more daylight and earlier, but the evening is not much to speak of. Lost my tomato plants over the weekend, just doesn't do any good to try and cover crops on this windy hill, by morning the plastic will be at the end of the drive way. Still have the greens and lettuces for fresh eating. Almost have a bobbin of yarn spun from one of Jewell's yearlings, it hand cards beautifully and easily, I'm thinking it will be a hat to wear to the barn. Needle felted a few small pumpkins to sit around my space at the gallery to give it that fallish feeling. Still so many fall chores to do, hope the weather stays fair for a good while and the holidays don't rush in too soon.

Georgia weather

Waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before shearing more goats. The already shorn ones are doing fine, but it will be back in the 70's in a few days. It is a shock to have a mohair coat removed when it is cold and windy, and such a big change in just a few days.  Watched the weatherman last night, he said we wouldn't have a frost until Friday night, so I didn't cover the tomatoes, we were snowy white with frost this morning. That's Georgia weather. Decided to keep the dye pots going and bring the wet fleeces in by the wood stove to dry since the wind is blowing the wool off the outside drying racks. This is good wool selling weather, everybody needs a wool scarf to keep the wind at bay and wool yarn to knit with by the fire.

Next on the list

Getting the kittens and Barney cat spayed and neutered are on my list, found a nice home for one of the females, she had a job offer as a mouse patrol. The newly shorn bucks were up and out eating hay this morning, they are shivering a bit, but shivering is a way to warm you when you are cold. It's amazing how fast the hair will grow back on an angora goat.There will be an inch in a month from now. If the goats are not shorn they will get sluggish as the hair gets longer, lice will eat on their skin, and they will hang the locks of hair in their teeth trying to bite at them, sometimes a horn will get tangled in the locks as they try to scratch. It's like a load is lifted off them when they loose the heavy coat and their metabolism increases. The body tells them to eat and start the growing process all over again.

Today

This week is the beginning of doing the things that have been put off to another day. Got a real shearer to come out and start on the billies. We got 10 adult and 3 kids shorn, hooves trimmed, deloused, banded the ones that weren't going to make breeding stock and vaccinated them. Adult billies have strong thick necks and will take a toll on you wrestling them around, so it is hard to get very many done in one day. They are a little shivery tonight but I bedded the barn down with wheat straw and they have all the hay they can eat and a cup of grain, they are in good shape and can stand the change in temperature as long as they have good shelter and staying full. Hope this front moves out fast and the sun returns. I'm whooped, going to eat vegetable soup from the freezer with hot cornbread, hit the shower and go to bed. Some good news, KeeKee can get up on her back legs and move around a bit if I put her grain bowl on the other side of her pen.

Warp the loom

I am almost a year behind on a scarf for a friend that ordered it for his sweetheart last Christmas. What a nice gift to give. I have put it off for so long, shearing, kidding, then it got hot in May, then hotter thru summer, then shearing again, get ready for SAFF, and now I am out of excuses so yesterday afternoon I warped my knitter's loom and wove 2 black kid mohair scarves and tonight they are in the dishpan soaking in warm water. After rinsing and slapping them around on the table a bit I will hang them out to dry and by tomorrow they will be good to go. Since I have woven two, one will got to the gallery for sale. Black Magic and Valerie are the doe kids that produced the mohair that is so soft next to the skin. Black Magic was spun into a two ply yarn for the warp and Valerie a curly spun single yarn for the weft.  So, add up the time, bred their mothers in the fall, fed and cared for them for 5 months of pregnancy, stayed close to the barn every two hours for two months checking for newborns, assist birthing, dry wet kids, give vitamins, strip udder on doe, make sure kid finds milk, dip navel in iodine, pen doe and kid , carry feed and water to pen everyday, after 4 months wean kid, at six months shear kid, wash fleece, spin fleece, warp loom and weave scarf, tie fringe and wash scarf. Smile.

Flannel sheet season

The most wonderful time of the year is flannel sheet season, not Christmas. This is the best time of year for wool and mohair sales, maybe that is what makes it feel like Christmas. A shepherd in the South has only a few short months to sell a fiber that is so warm, as it is hard to sell wool and woollen clothing when it is 90 plus degrees so many months of the year. But the flocks eat year round so the shepherd must make hay while the sun shines. The monthly meeting of the Peachtree Handspinner's Guild was today and I am fortunate to have so many supporters of a small farm flock. I joined the guild in 1986 and some of the spinners have wool from my sheep that are long gone, but their fleeces are still waiting to be spun. One of my favorite lines to tell buyers of handspun and knitted or woven clothing is that it may seem expensive, but it will last forever if taken care of properly.

Money

Okay, I had a good show at SAFF, now where does all that money go? Booth fees $325, goat show fees $156, fuel $100, motel room $367.53, food around $100 we took the cooler, vet fees $45, farm help while I'm away, about $200, a years work of shearing, washing, dyeing, picking, carding, spinning yarn, packaging, printing, displays, and my aching back, priceless. And if there is anything left over repair this shelter hit by the wind Monday morning. What do I gain from all this hard work? Good health and body, a mind that is always busy planning and creating something that works out sometimes and sometimes doesn't but is always clicking even in my sleep, always good fresh food, feeling needed by a bunch of goats and sheep that depend on me, a reason to get up and get out every morning even if I don't feel like it. I've got to climb that mountain every day and I'll never get to the top, but like the song says, "It's the climb".